(DCNF)—CNBC’s Joe Kernen scoffed at Democrat Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday as she tried to convince the panel that corporations are “price gouging” in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Warren, who has repeatedly spewed the “price gouging” talking point, said that companies are raising prices because of their worries about the costs of the reciprocal tariffs that Trump imposed on April 2, which he deemed “Liberation Day.” Kernen pointed out that inflation and the cost of goods, such as eggs, have come down since Trump reentered office in January.
“There are businesses that are already saying quite publicly, yup, they’re worried, so they’re raising prices now. And this is actually one of my most serious concerns about the tariffs.,” Warren said. “Once everyone starts talking about price increases and remember, this started last Friday with Jerome Powell, saying that he’s very concerned that we’re gonna see inflation. That prices are gonna go up across the board for everything that consumers buy. That creates the environment for businesses to be able to say ‘oh, well we’ll just go ahead and increase our prices now, we’ll increase our prices more than the cost of the tariffs,’ and so you get the one two punch of passing along costs from the tariffs, but also price gouging.”
“Remember our last conversation, this is like part two,” Kernen responded. “Remember our last conversation about price gouging. So now you have another way to say that corporations are doing that. But egg prices came down, inflation came down, it seems like the corporations only gouge when you say they’re gouging and they’re unable to at other times.”
The Massachusetts senator previously sparred with Kernen on price gouging in August, where she accused him of talking over her as she attempted to defend former Vice President Kamala Harris’ introduced ban on so-called price gouging on groceries. She further joined other Senate Democrats to accuse McDonald’s of price gouging after Trump made a campaign visit at the chain restaurant in October.
The senator introduced S. 3803, the Price Gouging Prevention Act of 2024, on Feb. 26, which intended to impose a national price gouging ban.
Warren cited Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, who stated that prices went up during Trump’s first term after he had placed tariffs on certain countries. She claimed that when Trump placed tariffs on imported washing machines, domestic manufacturers raised the prices of their washers and driers simply because they could.
“So I know you don’t want to listen to me on this, but listen to Jerome Powell on this,” Warren said. “The example he gave Friday was from the last time that Trump’s tariffs went into effect. And he said there was a tariff on washing machines, no surprise, the price of washing machines went up. But the shocking part is the price of driers went up as well even though there was no imposition of tariffs on those. You tell me what that is except for price gouging.”
“I’m trying to figure that out. If you have a clothes line, unless you have to dry, though, senator … we had that at my house growing up,” Kernen said. “Did you? Yeah, I loved the smell.”
“I love the way you’re changing the subject here. That is an example of price gouging, I think it’s time for you to eat that,” Warren said.
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found in May that corporations were not gouging during former President Joe Biden’s administration, and instead raised prices to meet the demands in the early stages of the post-pandemic economic recovery. The report further found that the high government spending during the Biden administration had a significantly higher contribution to inflation than corporations raising prices.
After inflation plagued the Biden administration, the prices of consumer goods have largely improved since Trump took office. The price of eggs, which soared 58% in comparison to 2024, plummeted from $8.16 in early March to $3.25 as of Wednesday.
Inflation slowed in February as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of the price of everyday goods, increased 2.8%, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released in March. The Producer Price Index, a wholesale inflation measurement, also substantially slowed in February in comparison to the previous month.
Economists expect that inflation also eased in March partly due to the decrease in energy and gasoline prices, according to Morning Star.
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